Hardstand travails

It is now Tuesday evening and we have been hauled out since last Friday. We had to back into the travelift dock as otherwise our forestay would have fouled the travelift crossbeam and, although we always reverse like an unpredictable whale, we managed the exercise with our customary insousiance!! Having accomplished that we then were lifted out on the Travel Lift and the first thing that happens is that the boat is waterblasted to get any residual fouling removed. Then we were trundled across the road to the working hardstand where we have been ever since. The first job was to wetsand the whole hull which was accomplished with a hose and Scotch scouring pads. The hull after 12 months and many miles was looking better than she has looked in recent times and we put this down to the antifouling paint we had used back in Whangarei - Hempel ablative. Fortunately it's available here too and so we have been using it again.

The main problem we have come up against is the wind which blows through the boatyard at about 20-25 knots from 1000 every day. So, it's necessary to get working no later than 0700 which we will do again tomorrow and hopefully will complete two coats which, considering the excellent condition when we hauled out, should be sufficient for the forthcoming voyage to Malaysia. Then we can get it done again, but because of the lower labour costs, we won't be doing it - yaaayyyyy!  

We are on a gravel surface which is better for our timber hull but it tends to be somewhat messy. A heartwarming sight was Jean in her overalls lying on her back on the ground under the keel applying antifouling paint to the bottom of the keel and getting liberally spattered with the aforementioned!! So, antifouling is not all fun - far from it.

On another note we've had the Queensland State elections and the LNP Party has been returned with a historic majority  The only concern with this is that a weak opposition (Labour has only 6-7 seats in a Parliament of over 60 seats) can result in some less than democratic situations. Still, it seems that democracy is an illusion anyway so why should we be concerned?

After the wind got up this morning we went into Bundaberg and after waiting for the bus for a time, we were offered a lift by a very kind couple, Ron and Margaret in their Landcruiser. They have a property on the Burnett River with a schooner which they built themselves moored at the bottom of their garden and they and the boat survived last year's floods. Their anchor is now buried under 2 metres of river silt! We picked up our laptop which we'd left for a checkover and then some provisioning after which we caught the bus back to the marina. Early start in the morning to complete the antifouling.

As always watch this space.......................

Love from us